Dealing with Complaints

Student misconduct

Familiarize yourself with the Office of Student Conduct website. It contains all
the policies, procedures, and forms for handling student misconduct. It is also highly
recommended that you invite the associate dean of students to a departmental meeting.
Don't make up your own rules; follow the Office of Student Conduct procedures. This
will save you a world of trouble.

Faculty conflict

Dealing with faculty collegiality problems can be one of the biggest challenges a
department chair faces. In departments of all sizes there can be factions within
the faculty, or deep-seated personality conflict between two faculty members, or a
faculty member who gets by without doing his/her share—usually being so grumpy nobody
wants to ask him/her to do anything. If these types of problems are not addressed,
they can have long-term, negative impacts on your department's productivity and just
generally make the workplace unpleasant.

What should you do?

Don't go it alone. If the problem is too sensitive to discuss with senior members
of your department (or if they are part of the problem), ask a trusted fellow chair
for advice. Meet with the dean or an associate dean. They were department chairs
before they landed in the dean's office and they are always willing to lend an ear.

Read Chapters 8-11 of Jeffrey Buller's The Essential Department Chair. Dr. Buller provides very concrete suggestions for dealing with faculty conflict.
The dean's office will lend you a copy. We'd even be happy to buy you a copy!

Staff conflict

If you have staff members who are not working well together, you are not the only
one who has noticed. The entire department suffers. Staff conflict is only slightly
less miserable than faculty conflict and it hits you in the face every time you go
to the office.

What should you do?

Don't jump to conclusions. Investigate gently. Get all sides of the story.

Bring the parties together and discuss workplace expectations. They do not have to
like one another but they must be civil in the workplace. Don't take it for granted
that everyone has the same idea of what civility means.

Review job duties and clarify as needed. The smallest confusion over who is responsible
for what can lead to major conflict.

Make sure you are distributing work loads appropriately. Is it possible that you are
dumping extra work on a good-natured employee and avoiding interaction with a surly
or incompetent one?

If you have tried all of the above and still not made significant headway, contact
the HR Employment Engagement manager and ask for a consult. Or contact the dean's
office. We've probably had a similar problem.

Sexual harassment

If you have not already taken the university's sexual harassment training, please
do so now. All university employees are required to take the training. Go to the
affirmative action training webpage: http://www.memphis.edu/affirmact/training.php.